Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss
So it’s that time of the year where you see everyone hopping onto new diets to finally shed off the excess pounds of fat and finally have the beach bod they always wanted. The problem is not that these diets don’t work, because they all do. The problem is that people have unrealistic expectations and want to take extreme steps to reach their goal. And we all know where this leads to...
They eventually give up. Let’s be real, how many times have you seen someone get on a diet plan and actually reach their goal? Even in the case where someone does achieve results, they eventually bounce back up to where they started. It isn’t that these people don’t work hard enough or are lazy to stick to the plan. It is just the fact that they have expectations that aren’t realistic, and this, along with the fact that they'll try to do anything to achieve their goals, leads them down this path of agony where they are stuck in a cycle of binging and trying to diet down. So what exactly should you expect when looking at fat loss?
Factors That Affect Weight Loss
Firstly, notice how I said fat loss and not weight loss? Losing fat and losing weight are two very different things. Let's break this down. Your body weight is affected by several factors such as your skeletal mass, muscle mass, the amount of body fat you're carrying and the amount of water your body is holding. Do you remember the time you had that high sodium cheat day and gained 5 kgs overnight? Well, you definitely didn’t gain 5 kgs of fat overnight and it was just your body retaining more water because high amounts of salt cause your body to hold more water. In the same way, when someone cuts out carbs and tells you they lost 7kgs in a week, just know that all of it isn’t fat and that they dropped a lot of water weight as carbs hold water and lesser carbs will lead to retaining lesser water. Do you see what I’m getting to over here? These fluctuations in your weight are caused by other factors that can affect weight loss and not necessarily from you losing fat.
Body Composition
If you just focus on losing weight, you could end up losing muscle along with fat. Do this consistently and you’ll end up looking 'skinny fat’. I'm pretty sure no one wants that! Losing fat instead of just scale weight should always be your focus, as it is what will help you achieve a better body composition over time. Simply put, body composition is the proportion of fat and muscle along with the bones and organs in your body. This means that one’s body composition improves when he or she loses fat and gains muscle over time. For example, the two individuals in the image below weigh exactly the same, but look completely different because of their body composition.
As you can see, if you just focus on getting to a specific number on the scale, the end result will not necessarily be pretty! This just helps us understand that bringing about a positive change in one’s body composition has more to do with fat loss than with just weight loss.
Rate Of Fat Loss
Now that you understand the difference between fat loss and weight loss, it's time for you to set some realistic expectations to achieve your goals. Wouldn’t we all like to lose 10kgs of fat overnight and wake up to a ‘ripped' set of abs? Sadly, this isn’t possible, and in reality, progress is going to be a lot slower than this, especially if you plan on doing this naturally (which I'm hoping you do). You have to set a goal that’s sustainable in the long run and at the same time is efficient. So what is a sustainable rate of fat loss for an individual?
To lose fat sustainably you should aim to lose 0.5%-1% of your weight weekly. This means, for a person weighing 80kgs, a good rate would be losing anywhere from 0.4-0.8 kgs a week. I know this sounds too less, especially if you are the lower end of the range, but keep in mind that being consistent with this will get you where you want to be. For example, at this rate, over a period of 12 weeks, this individual can lose around 10kgs, and trust me, if done right, losing 10 kgs with the majority of it being fat will definitely have a big impact on your body composition. In the end, losing fat comes down to eating at a calorie deficit, i.e. consuming lesser calories than you burn. Just be consistent! You’ll notice that you drop a little more weight initially in the form of water and glycogen but eventually, you should focus on averaging in the ‘0.5%-1% of your weight’ range.
Tracking Progress
Keeping in mind that your focus shouldn’t be on just watching the number on the scale drop, should you even use a weighing scale to weigh yourself? The weighing scale is indeed a great tool to help you see if you’re on track but shouldn’t be the only tool in your arsenal. Think of this situation where you have been eating at a calorie deficit and training hard, yet you notice that your weight on the scale has not changed. A person relying solely on the scale would end up reducing calories or adding in more cardio to increase the deficit thinking that their weight is stuck when they could actually be experiencing a body recomposition where they’re gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time. But how do you know if that is actually the case or if your weight has just stalled? The solution —> The measure tape.
If you see the scale not changing but your waist measurement dropping, you probably are experiencing a body recomposition. In this scenario, you would not change anything and keep eating and training the same way until your measurements actually stop changing. This is one of the reasons why I might even rank the measure tape above the weighing scale as a tool for measuring progress because sometimes you might be dropping inches off your waist while the reading on the scale would be inconsistent. Here’s how you can track your progress.
Track your weight daily and take weekly averages. Weigh yourself at a similar time and in similar conditions daily to keep the readings as consistent as possible and average them over the week to see the change from week to week. If you simply prefer weighing yourself less frequently, once a week would be fine too but just remember that this leaves a little more room for error based on how much food quantity and the amount of sodium you consumed on the day prior to your weigh in. Be patient before making any changes to your calories. Besides this, you can measure your waist once a week. You could also measure other areas such as your shoulders, chest, arms, and thighs once a month to see any changes in those. You can also take progress pictures (keeping conditions such as lighting, angle, etc. as consistent as possible) to see the changes over time.
Conclusion
Weight loss is a much broader term when compared to fat loss. Changing your body composition eventually comes down to losing fat which can be done by eating at a calorie deficit, i.e. consuming lesser calories than you burn. Being consistent with proper nutrition and training over time will lead to results. Aim to lose 0.5%-1% of your body weight every week. An aggressive diet isn’t always the answer and a sustainable approach is what will help you achieve results and maintain them in the long run. Don’t sweat about the changes on the scale and use other tools such as the body measurements to track your progress. In the end, remember that you are doing this to improve yourself and that progress does not always mean dropping that number on the scale!
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